BlindSighted
by Ema Marsel
Summary: In all different forms, she was blindsighted by him, and in return he was blindsighted by her.


"Look he is a natural talent when it comes to flying, no one else has a seat that compares to his-" Lexie Ryan had been championing her choice for the upcoming Quidditch selections for the Puddlemere United team. There had been quite the natural attrition from the last season, losing their Keeper to age, their second best Chaser to a more competitive contract with the Chudley Cannons, and their seeker was pregnant. This was the first time in the past 4 decades that Puddlemere was in such a need of new talent and blood.

"Now, now, I thought we selected our players on their skills and talent, not by the broomstick between their legs." Banes Qroger, the manager of the club that hosted the Puddlemere United, he was one of the four in the conference room, that sat nearly seventy, putting his two knuts in on perspective players for the team. Besides Lexie Ryan, the chaser on the team and team captain, two other people were in the room as well, which was Reginald, Reg', Mcdogal who was the coach of the premier quidditch league, and Gemma Taintor, the Puddlemere United scout.

"I was not talking about the handle of his broomstick, but how he can handle a broomstick." Lexie snapped, any normal girl would be flush in the face speaking of such sexual innuendos, but being in a male dominated field she blended in with the guys.

"Albus Potter, I didn't know he was actually aiming to play professionally." Reg said pulling open the file that Lexie has supplied the group. His eyes turned to Gemma, who gave a non-committal shrug and then to Lexie for an answer.

"He isn't, thats the beauty of it." Lexie explained.

"Please spell it out for me, I'm not following." Reg asked.

"No one would be courting him, there would be no negotiations." Lexie smiled she turned to Gemma who was doing her damned best to keep her mouth shut and eyes from rolling. She was distracting herself from the conversation by observing a few other call sheets of other quidditch prospects.

"What do we know about Potter?" Banes asked looking to Gemma who still had the call sheet in front of her face. "I mean, Lexie how do you know he has such a great seat?"

"We were in Hogwarts at the same time, and he was a natural, walked onto the team his second year and played chaser for two years and then moved to Keeper for the remaining four years. He was bloody brilliant then, I think his Keeper career at school was only allowing 60 points scored on his since his fourth year and on."

"But that was like seven years ago right?" Gemma asked finally breaking her silence. She was not a fan of this idea. She had been a firm campaigner of holding normal tryout trials to see what the pool of perspectives had to offer, all the great finds came out of the woodwork during the quidditch trial training camps. It showed the talent and skill level but also the rigorous training camps also broke down personalities and people were able to see the compatibility of a team player as opposed to an all about me flyer. But her vote had been vetoed due to the time constraints. The first major quidditch match was in five weeks time, and replacing half the team with reserve players was not an option. Furthermore the three spots that needed filling, the reserve team members were not up to par. Gemma still had the call sheet in front of her face. Not noticing the roll of eyes on Lexie's face, and the two men glancing her way, because Gemma Taintor typically stayed silent while the group hammered out the details.

"It has been eight." Lexie seethed through clenched teeth. The two were very good friends outside of work, but seemed to butt heads when it came to business decisions. They had met five years ago, when Gemma had scouted her from the second reserve team of the Holy Harpies, recognizing under-appreciated talent, making ripple effects in the lesser minor league games. Gemma made quidditch magic by securing a contract between the Lexie and Puddlemere United. This was one of the many quidditch matchmaking deals Gemma was responsible for, she had been one to create connections at the most random times, but had made quite the name for herself in the quidditch world. Which turned into a career and began her working relationship with Puddlemere United as their full time scout.

"So how do you know he still has talent." Gemma said placing the card down to look at her friend. She noticed Lexie's face was beginning to clench, not a good sign. "I mean does he still play, how do we know he is even interested?"

"You don't have talent like that and just lose it." Lexie sighed her hand running through her long blonde hair. "And I saw him playing at a charity gala last week. The one for Orphan's of the War, they had a friendly match played with some of the children and Albus was there, and it was like he had been riding since school."

"A charity gala isn't really a premier league match." Banes said before Gemma could which made her happy because she figured if she had made the point a curse would be aimed at her face. "It was a friendly game with children. There is a major crowd difference when the audience is a screaming twenty-thousand hoard of maniacal fans."

"But the talent and skill is all we need to focus on, besides it's Albus Potter, as in the son of the Boy Who Lived. He has been in the spotlight from birth, plus his mother is Ginny Weasley-Potter, star chaser of Holy Harpies for two season before she got pregnant." Lexie stated her case, "I think the guy can handle a little pressure from attention."

"I mean it does sound enticing, son of Harry Potter, it does seem like that bit of publicity would boost ticket sales." Reg said momentarily thinking about the money aspect.

"I thought we were about picking players that can play, not sell tickets. If that was the case I would go straight to Harry Potter himself to play the game, hell I would go after one of the weird sisters. I am sure they could muster up the ability to sit on a broomstick, if we are only going based on ticket sales." Gemma snapped and three pair of eyes landed on her again at her outburst. "Sorry, I just think we should pick a handful of these people, Potter included, and hold a qudditch trial and see who meshes better with the team."

The three seemed to mull over the idea. "I think Gemma has the right idea. No need to sit here and judge a player off their score card and file. It really depends on their ability to play and play with the team. And then we will decides." Reg said with a finality in the air. For the remaining twenty minutes meeting, they picked a group of 15 players. Four for the seeker position, seven for the chaser position and three of the keeper position, and of the three was Albus Potter, which irked Gemma a bit, but at least she got her preference of the trial.

"Alright Gemma, it looks like you have your work cut out for you to get these players to show up for the trial." Banes laughed as he stacked the last file onto her pile. She grimaced at the man but waved her wand over the bunch to fly into her satchel, and set off into the afternoon.

*************************************************************************************888

Gemma stepped in from the windy chill of Diagon Alley, into a well known pub called The Haunt. After the second war, many of the store fronts along Diagon Alley had fallen into disrepair from the neglect and abuse from the toils of Alley nearly ceased to exist during the dark times, but after the fall of Voldemort, one of the first initiatives the Minister of Magic took was to rejuvenate the surrounding areas of the Alley. Part of the project was to scour Knockturn Alley of the filth and darker corners, moreover to add some color and stability back into the Diagon Alley that had been most effected. Stores that had been previously closed, reopened with the assistance of the ministry, and new business ventures were encouraged to recreate a golden era once again.

One of the buildings had belonged to one of the death eater families and when the remaining heir went to trial and was found guilty, his estate was seized and went through a sense of probate to pay for the damages attributed from the war. This building had been set aside to be part of the rejuvenation project, and people placed bids to take part of the building. A contractor had come up with the brilliant idea to renovate the main floor into an three sections, the two smaller would be boutique type stores, and the larger last part would be a pug. While turning the upper floors into a complex of condos. The Haunt had taken roost within weeks of the building plan being suggested, and after a few months being open, it had become the local quidditch bar where players and fans came to haunt.

Gemma had stumbled across the threshold nearly four times a week to either meet up with past friends, current business deals, or simply to get a good meal since it was a convenient stop as her apartment was two floors above the bar. She had been one of the original tenets and made no plans to move. The spacious 1 bedroom loft was a steal, but it was the prime location of the pub down below, the apparition spot across the street and her favorite stores down the Alley.

But she stepped across the threshold, escaping the windy chill to fall into the quiet comfort of the sports pub that had yet to gather its normal rowdy crowd, it was still quite early. The barkeeper looked up from his ledger book and Gemma smiled a hello in his direction.

"I will have the usual to go Jeb." Gemma said walking up to the bar and setting her satchel down, and pulling out the first two folders from the stack. There were times she truly loved her job, traveling the world in search of quidditch talent, but at times it was a tedious, ridiculous and quite stressful. There had been quite the many late nights, dramatic battles between spoiled players and unwilling to budge sports reps, and at times she had the unlucky job to deliver the dreadful news that the player just didn't make the cut.

Now all Gemma needed was a quiet night, locked into her loft trying to find the best order of contacting the new pool of candidates. The quidditch world had become quite the shark pool with sports agents, promotion contracts and iron-clad agreements, with clauses that nearly made a player commit a wizards promise written in blood. Gemma was beginning to hate the realm. She wanted to get back to a time when players played to play and monetary notation had no consistency in the game, but then she would be out of a job. Glancing at the top folder, was a picture of a young man on his broomstick, muscles seemed to flex through the picture. Reading his scoresheet, and talent histology a normal reader would be overwhelmed with the statistics, and come off with the idea that the guy was pretty great. Being the captain of his school team from the second year, natural high marks in flying, and was rated most scoring player in the three years he has been on the reserve team.

But beneath the statistics, Gemma read the guy, Whitney Trulock, was a legacy quidditch player, which meant to her that he would have an entitled confidence to his personality. She also took note that the only high performing subject he had in school was flying, which led her to feel he was either a poor student or stressed upon that other subjects did not matter because he would only be a quidditch player. Otherwise he was stupid. And the factor that was a major red flag was the fact he was the top scoring player for three seasons in a row on the reserve team. This screamed "not a team player" when she compared his score card to the history of the games he started. He scored seven to one times more then the other chasers on the team. Not a good odd, have a three to one odd might show he was quite talented, but anything above a four was screaming show-off and not giving the other chasers a chance to play. Quidditch was a team sport, not an individualistic event.

She was about onto the second page of the next candidate a young, Marckus Plien when a body slammed into the stool next to her and a tug on her arm brought her from her reverie.

"What the bloody hell was your problem today?" Lexie snarled at her friend waving to the Jeb for her usual. Gemma had only half finished her drink not noticing the bag of food ready to go sitting beside her bag. "I mean what do you have against Potter?"

"I don't have anything against the Potter kid-" Gemma began but the snort of her friend into her wizard's rum caused her to stop her response a gentle eyes roll was missed by her friend as she was too busy placing her tumbler back to the bar.

"It sure seemed like you did back at the club. You know Banes and Reg don't listen to me if you oppose anything at all." Lexie snapped. "They don't trust my insight at all."

"I don't agree with you at all, the boys seemed quite ready to sign Potter the moment you mentioned it." Gemma sighed, it had been an on going battle since Lexie had stepped up to take over the captain seat eighteen months ago. It had been the first time a woman had been the captain of Puddlemere United in over six decades, but it had become quite the cursed position as of late. All the previous owners of the spot had been forced into early retirement due to injury or death. And the death was only once, which had to do with mostly a bee sting to the throat and a severe allergy, so hardly quidditch related, but the fall from four stories in the air didn't exactly help. But since Lexie had stepped into the ring as captain, she had gotten some notion in her mind that the coach and club manager didn't trust her completely and preferred to deal with Gemma. It wasn't a completely misplaced notion, but to a point ungrounded. Lexie had a temper that had shown light on a few instances that caused Reg to view her cautiously while, Gemma had not once lost her cool under the constant pressure to perform. Banes on the other hand didn't care about anyone's point besides his own.

"But the moment you opened your mouth, they both stepped back to listen to you." Lexie snapped. "It is so frustrating, this is my team, I should get some say."

"Merlin Lex, it was not like that at all." Gemma sighed her frustration starting to get the better of her. "There is a natural selection process we need to apply when it comes to the team decisions. You know very well that it is the same idea we did last summer prior the fall season when we needed add some new players to the reserve team."

"Fine, so what do you feel about Albus Potter?" Lexie said letting out a breath to move the conversation along. It was a tangent that Gemma was more then willing to move onto the next part of her night.

"To be honest, Lexie, I haven't even looked at his file." Gemma sighed ignoring the exasperated gasp that ran past her ear.

"Not even looked at the file?" Lexie repeated the statement.

"True fact." Gemma smiled tucking a errant curl behind her ear and then grabbed a sip of her drink. "His chart is closer to the bottom of the stack."

"But what about what we were talking about in the conference room today?" Lexie responded. "I mean I went on about his stats in school, were you even listening to me then or even now?" It was true that Gemma was not focusing on her friend, she has pulled open her folder again and began rereading. She did want to go to bed at one point.

"Gemma!"

"What? I'm sorry Lex, I am busy tonight, I have to read all these portfolios on the different players, your Potters truly, why do you want him so badly on the team anyway?" Gemma questioned looking at her friend, "I thought you were getting serious about that Higgins bloke. Do you want to shag Potter?"

"Good Godric's no!" Lexie reacted as if the possible idea was gut wrenching enough to physically push out the words. Her body did a convulsion stomach twist.

"What it's a valid question. I mean I don't usually see you this adamant about a topic unless you were trying to sleep with it." Gemma said not noticing the sting of her words affecting her friend. The silence fell upon the two, and for a moment Gemma looked up to make sure her friend was still sitting next to her at the bar.

"Okay but initial gut reaction, what do you think?" Lexie finally spoke.

"I don't go with gut reaction." Gemma said, "I mean what if it is just indigestion, or an appendicitis or a hangover or food poisoning-"

"You are equating the decision of signing Ablus Potter to Puddlemere because you might have indigestion or food poisoning?" Lexie asked. There was a laughter right behind where the girls were sitting. Two young men had taken root, one with white blonde hair, and another with dark black hair were standing awkwardly listening to their conversation. When Gemma took at good look at the pair, her quizzical eye roamed over each individual as if she was assessing a quidditch play, looking at every tangent, every angle, searching for a weak link or a crack in the foundation. The blonde was taller, almost described as lanky for his height, but he held his stature with a arrogance that seemed to balance the man, his face was sharp and angular as if it was made from ice. He had grey eyes, but there was a vitality almost gleaming when he caught Gemma staring him down but he didn't look away, he took her stare as a challenge. His smile spread a bit farther then Gemma found attractive but the man was beautiful. There was a quick look to his hands and she noticed it was bare of a ring, but he did was not staring at either her or Lexie in a predatory fashion made her believe he was in a happy relationship.

The other man, the blonde's companion, was slightly shorter then the blonde, a height good for a keeper or possibly a chaser, his build was muscular but not to the point of obsessive, Gemma found that an unattractive trait in a guy that was too worried about his muscle definition. It just didn't seem healthy to be too riped. The second guy had a darker coloring to his skin, not of a different race, but a sun marking on his skin, as if he like spending his day in the sunlight soaking up the vitamin D. His eyes were green, striking in color and life, she was a bit taken back when his eyes came to rest upon hers that she felt as if she intruding on a secret, but he quickly shifted away from staring. She glanced to his hands noticing the absence of a ring as well, but she was distracted by his hair that could only be described as floppy. A black mess of shaggy curls, she had to fight the urge to run her fingers through the locks.

"Albus, Scorpius, you found us!" Lexie said snapping the group into attention of the moment. She had downed her drink and twisted slightly on her stool to face the new comers the growing group.

"Us?" Albus asked looking towards Gemma hesitantly. Scorpius on the other end flagged down Jeb, the bartender and ordered another round.

"Wouldn't miss a night out with you Lexie dear." Scorpius said. "Let's find a booth shall we?" He said grabbing two of the tankards and walking to an open booth lining the wall, Albus followed with Lexie and Gemma pulling up the rear.

"Lexie what are you doing?" Gemma snapped quietly so only her friend could hear.

"Nothing." Lexie said pulling her friend to the booth and shoving her into the side that was up against the wall and then crawled next, so the girls were sitting across the guys. "Let's make some introductions. Gemma, this is Scorpius Malfoy on the left and Albus Potter on the right. Boys this is Gemma Taintor."

It was an awkward moment for Gemma. A soft blush spread across her cheeks, it was a sign she was uncomfortable, embarrassed and shy. Scorpius noticing the lack of noise from his other companions jump to talk. "Nice to meet you Gemma, I'm Scorpius, sorry to crash on your night with Lexie here."

"No need to apologize Scorp-" Lexie said smiling trying to break the tension. "Gemma and I were just catching up on what was happening at work today."

"Oh, you work with Lexie?" Scorpius questioned turning his eyes back to Gemma who still had her hands clutched on the folders. The whites of her knuckles showed that her blood circulation was being restricted. Her eyes snapped up to the steely grays. "Do you play for Puddlemere as well?"

"No, I don't play quidditch." Her voice was small, and almost inaudible.

"Not that she isn't brilliant enough to play." Lexie smiled at her friend. "Gemma here is the Puddlemere United scout. She is the brilliant brains behind putting the team together."

"Wait are you the Gemma that scouted Royal Rendalls for the Cannon's a few years back?" Scorpius asked.

"Yes." Gemma replied meekly.

"That trade was bloody brilliant!" Scorpius exclaimed, "Man, Dad was so excited when we went to the game a few years back, because the Cannons actually had a decent team."

"Do you play?" Gemma asked her eyes remained focused on Scorpius but the question was for the two.

"I played a bit in school, but never had much talent to go pro." Scorpius supplied and the trio focused on the still silent Potter. "Albus, did Merlin accio your tongue?"

"No, sorry, I played in school." Albus said.

The silence descended upon the group again. Lexie coughed awkwardly. "You still play a bit now."

"I guess." Albus replied quietly looking off into the distance. "If you will excuse me, I need to use the loo." He stepped up from the booth and made for the back of the pub.

"Bloody hell this is awkward." Scorpius sighed pulling the tankard to his lips. "You would think we were setting him up on a date, its just a little meet and greet, sorry Gemma, Albus isn't usually this painfully shy. He truly does love to play, he didn't know we arranged this soiree."

"Ah." Gemma sighed her eyes went directly to the quidditch player on her right. "I know how he feels."

"What?" Scorpius looked to the witches in the booth. "Oh bloody hell."

"Look Gemma, I just wanted you to meet him and not be biased on your decision." Lexie supplied when she caught her friends enraged face. "I wanted to show you the sweet Albus Potter that doesn't usually get-

"Oh stuff it okay!" Gemma hissed. "What did you think tonight was going to bring forth Lexie?" She nudged her friend to stand. "Move, I am leaving, I can't believe you. Not wanting me to be biased, really how doltish do you think I am."

"Doltish, Gemma I don't think you that at all." Lexie sighed standing from the booth but stood to block her friend's exit path.

"Then what did you think would happen, I would meet this Albus Potter and think the world of him, and not connect the dots that this the guy you want on the team at all?" Gemma snapped in her friends face. "Now move, I am going home."

"Ms. Taintor, please don't leave angrily, I am sure Lexie's intention were purely true." Scorpius tried to calm the situation he created.

Gemma whipped her eyes to glare at the Malfoy boy. "Please excuse me when I say stuff it. I really do not have the patience for this tonight. I have a ton of work to make it through. Now Lexie get out of my way."

"No, not until you hear me out." Lexie stood firmly.

"What possibly more do you have to say, you wanted me to be unbiased, I get it, but what means did you wish to achieve with this?" Gemma demanded.

"I wanted you to give him a chance. Not be biased, and maybe like him a bit." Lexie said softly.

"Like him a bit, so I would favor picking him for the team as opposed to others. Isn't that being biased?" Gemma twisted her friend's words. "Now move, I need to leave."

"Gemma wait." Lexie sighed reaching for her arm as she passed. "This is not what I intended."

"I need to go." Gemma said extracting her arm from her friend's hand. "I don't have the time or energy to deal with this. We made the decision at the club today to give the Potter kid a chance. If he has all the talent you say, we will see it then. Now if you don't mind. Good night."

She left the pub through the side entrance that led to the street but was only two doors down from the private entrance to the condos above the bar. When Gemma was alone on the street she let out a breath of frustrated air and balled her hands into fists and let out a struggled moan. She was digging in her purse in-front of her door when an hand wrapped around her shoulder.

It was a quick exchange but it ended with Gemma pinning a frightened Albus to the brick wall with a wand to his neck. "What were you thinking?" She snapped. His hands were brought up between the space separating the two to show he meant to harm.

"I'm sorry for startling you." Albus whispered. "I just wanted to apologize for tonight."

Gemma got her breathing under control, took a step back and lowered her wand to her side. "I'm sorry." She said looking at the ground, completely embarrassed at her over reaction and harsh words.

Albus let out a low chuckle, which caught Gemma's attention and she looked at him. She had seen pictures in the magical media, from the newspaper to different magazines outlining the life of the Potters. She knew he was a spitting image of his father, the boy who lived, without the scar. She also knew he went to Hogwarts and various tidbits that was splattered across the gossip sections. But she didn't know he had a fantastic laugh that was completely carefree. An exact opposite of the serious fellow in the bar.

"Look, I didn't know what Lexie and Scorpius had planned tonight. I figured you were in on it, I didn't realize until I heard you having it out with Lexie that you were completely blind sighted as well." Albus said running a hand through his hair. A tell he was uncomfortable under the intense stare of Gemma.

"I wasn't." Gemma whispered. "I thought you guys were ganging up on me so you can be on a professional team."

"Absolutely not." Albus sighed. "I just want you to know that." And it settled the uneasy feeling between the pair. Gemma smiled put her wand into her bag and moved farther away from Albus who returned her smile and watched as she waved good bye and entered the door.

It would the be the wee hours of the next morning when a peck of owls were sent for delivery to the fifteen individuals with an invitation for a chance to change their life.

One being for Albus Severus Potter.


End file.
